Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Friday, Ashton touched upon the latest developments concerning the ongoing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA as well as the continuation of Tehran’s nuclear talks with the Sextet of powers, press tv reported.
Ashton also pointed to the upcoming nuclear talks in Vienna, and expressed optimism that the negotiations would make further progress.
Ashton reaffirmed the Sextet’s determination to continue serious negotiations with Iran, and noted that the negotiators would try their utmost to achieve a final agreement despite the fact that the next round of talks would be highly complicated and challenging.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and the IAEA on Sunday released a 7-article memorandum of understanding (MoU) on continued cooperation in the future.
The AEOI-IAEA agreement was reached after two days of intensive talks in Tehran.
The AEOI and the IAEA also issued a joint statement after their bilateral talks. The statement said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran and the IAEA held constructive technical meetings on February 1-2 within the framework of cooperation that was agreed by both sides in November."
It said the two sides "reviewed progress in implementing the action plan as agreed by them three months ago" and "Iran has implemented the practical steps foreseen in the agreement".
Also, Director-General of the IAEA Yukiya Amano and Head of the AEOI Ali Akbar Salehi had earlier signed a joint statement in Tehran which presented a roadmap for future cooperation to resolve the remaining issues between the two sides.
The statement endorsed by the two top nuclear official in early November specified 6 topics for cooperation and its content was fully implemented by Iran in almost three months.
